President Moon's Emergency COVID-19 Inspection in the Seoul Metropolitan Area... Lee Jae-myung Attends

Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon Metropolitan Area Local Government Heads Attend

President Moon Jae-in [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Son Seon-hee] As the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) continues to surge daily, mainly in the Seoul metropolitan area, President Moon Jae-in will preside over an emergency inspection meeting on the afternoon of the 9th.

This is the second time since March 16 that President Moon and the heads of local governments in the metropolitan area have held a meeting related to COVID-19 prevention measures. At that time, the highest number of confirmed cases ever recorded (909 cases on February 29) occurred. As the situation worsened, with 686 new confirmed cases recorded on that day, the second highest ever, he appears to have taken direct emergency action.

According to the Blue House, President Moon will hold an "Emergency Inspection on COVID-19 Prevention Situation in the Metropolitan Area" at 3 p.m. at the National Crisis Management Center of the Blue House. Attending via video conference will be Seo Jeong-hyeop, Acting Mayor of Seoul; Lee Jae-myung, Governor of Gyeonggi Province; Park Nam-chun, Mayor of Incheon; along with Seo Wook, Minister of National Defense; Kim Chang-ryong, Commissioner of the National Police Agency; Jung Eun-kyung, Director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency; and Kim Hee-gyeom, Head of the Disaster and Safety Management Headquarters.

Also attending will be Park Neung-hoo, Minister of Health and Welfare, and Jeong Ki-hyun, Director of the National Medical Center from the government side, as well as Noh Young-min, Chief of Staff, and Suh Hoon, Director of National Security Office from the Blue House. The meeting is expected to last about 40 minutes.

During the meeting, President Moon will receive reports from Minister Park on the overall COVID-19 situation and plans to secure beds for severe patients, and from Director Jeong on the current status of critically ill patients and management plans. Additionally, via video, Commissioner Kim will report on plans to expand hospital beds in the metropolitan area and strengthen epidemiological investigations.

In this regard, Minister Seo will receive a report on plans to support field epidemiological investigation personnel. On the 7th, President Moon instructed, "Deploy all available personnel to strengthen the field epidemiological investigation capacity in the metropolitan area," and ordered, "Prepare to deploy public officials, military, police, and other available personnel to support field epidemiological investigations starting this week."

Finally, the heads of local governments in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon will report on the status and response plans for each region in that order. President Moon is expected to urge all local government heads and government officials to make every effort in prevention measures.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.